Components formed from composite materials, such as carbon fiber composites, have become a popular alternative to metallic components due to their high-strength and low-weight. These attributes make composite components exceptionally well suited for use in the aircraft industry where reducing weight and increasing strength are of particular importance. There are challenges, however, associated with the use of composite components. One such challenge is joining a composite component with a mating component, such as a metallic component, when forming large or complicated structures, such as airframes, rotor blades and other aircraft systems.
Two of the common joint configurations used for permanently coupling a composite component with a mating component are mechanical joints and bonded joints, each of which has relative advantages and disadvantages. Mechanical joints, such as bolted joints, provide simple and inexpensive connections between the components. It has been found, however, that bolted joints not only introduce undesirable weight to the resulting structure, but also require precision drilled holes in the composite component that may be subject to bearing wear responsive to repeated loads on the bolts. Bonded joints utilize adhesives, such as epoxies, to form the connection between the components. It has been found, however, that defects in a bonded joint may be difficult to identify and bonded joints may suffer from strength degradation responsive to tensile cyclic loading and/or exposure to high temperatures. Accordingly, a need has arisen for improved techniques for joining composite components with mating components such that the resulting structures are airworthy.